If you have any self-respect, you won't see 'Semi-Pro'

Wednesday

Feb 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMFeb 27, 2008 at 10:02 PM

Flint, Mich., in 1976, was not the place to be if you were a team in the American Basketball Association — the league that was destined to perish in the face of the bigger, stronger National Basketball Association. And in a theater that’s showing “Semi Pro” is no place to be if you’re a fan of comedies with wit and a bit of self-respect. In short, Will Ferrell needs to stop making sports comedies.

Ed Symkus

Flint, Mich., in 1976, was not the place to be if you were a team in the American Basketball Association — the league that was destined to perish in the face of the bigger, stronger National Basketball Association. And in a theater that’s showing “Semi-Pro” is no place to be if you’re a fan of comedies with wit and a bit of self-respect.

In short, Will Ferrell needs to stop making sports comedies.

Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, owner-coach-player of the Flint Tropics, an ABA basketball team in a league that’s about to collapse. The only hope: Be one of the few teams that gets promoted to the NBA. Jackie’s on-court moves are as bizarre as his promotional ideas. At every game he introduces each team member — to more and more empty seats — and regularly sings what one announcer calls his “once popular song” “Love Me Sexy.”

The bickering announcers, Dick and Lou (Andrew Daly and Will Arnett), are actually pretty funny … for about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, they shtick their way through this endless gag for the entire film.

There’s no real direction to “Semi-Pro,” just gag after gag. The movie probably should have given up on a story, and just stuck with Jackie’s wacky promotional ideas — eyeliner for the players, staging basketball brawls, wrestling a bear.

A side story about Woody Harrelson’s character, Monix, trying to rekindle a romance with Lynn (Maura Tierney) is just dropped. Oddly, Harrelson, a gifted comic actor, goes through the whole film playing it almost perfectly straight. Maybe he figured out something that Ferrell never comprehended: This isn’t a comedy. The only funny thing about Harrelson is that he appears to be much shorter than all of the other players (either a camera trick, or everyone else is really tall).

With all of these problems, it’s too bad that even Ferrell, a generally fearless actor who will do anything for a laugh, goes way overboard, completely missing the mark by being too physical with his comedy, too loud with his scattershot dialogue.

The film just runs out of steam. But that doesn’t stop it from shooting out the gags.

It’s literally a shell of other Ferrell comedies. A few subtle bits, such as an on-target Jackson 5 bit, are great fun. But subtlety is a rarity in Jackie Moon’s world, and in Ferrell’s portrayal. Add in first-time director Kent Alterman’s complete lack of pacing, and the film’s relentless flow of questionable taste, and you’ve got a film in which the winners may be in doubt, but the losers are never in question: They’re in the audience.

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